When I asked Morgan what she would miss most about Barton International Group, she sighed with her entire body and said “everything, is that a thing?” I didn’t know Morgan that well prior to interviewing her, but it wasn’t hard for me to see that she loves BIG with everything she’s got.

Morgan Ward joined Barton International Group in the fall of 2014, and, since then, the group has been “her thing”. She has put her entire self into the organization through her time spent on projects, being director of a department, and other various work within the organization. Throughout my interview with her, I honestly couldn’t count the number of times she told me that she loved doing work – specifically the work she did during her time in Barton International Group.

Morgan has grown a lot from being a freshman with “honestly zero belief” that she would get accepted into BIG, into being a hardworking and outperforming member of the group. Not only has she has learned how to communicate with people better, but she has also learned more about herself through being in BIG. During her time as director, she learned how to take a step back and guide people in doing work rather than doing the work herself. Most importantly, she learned how to be happy for other peoples’ achievements rather than being jealous that she wasn’t able to measure up to their accomplishments.

During her years in BIG, Morgan has not let projects pass by without at least providing some input. She has worked with Waterwalk Apartments, Jive, Star Lumber, and is currently project manager for NIAR. As she struggled to remember every project she had done throughout her four years, she easily rattled off a list of reasons for why she loved doing them. Projects “tie everything together,” she said, and make it “easy to see what we do” as a group. She told me that her experience with projects also allowed her to practice her love for presenting to high up officials and work on communicating effectively with clients as well as other project members.

Even when she went with BIG on trips, Morgan still managed to do some degree of work by helping to plan each of the trips. This proved challenging for her because she prefers “instant gratification,” and trip planning forces the planner to wait for their work to come to fruition. However, once it did, Morgan loved forming bonds with the other members on the trips and even updating the SOPs after they were over.

After sighing and thinking about what she would miss most from the group, Morgan was finally able to piece together a thought. She told me she would miss “seeing other students find their part in the world and find who they are.” She paused a moment longer, before saying that “the turnover is short so the growth is exponential.” I nodded in response to her genuinely sentimental answer, even as I knew that her most accurate answer to that question would always be “everything”.

Barton International Group is a student run consulting organization who strives to develop educational enrichment opportunities for our members and provide our clients with exceptional, diverse, and creative business solutions.